SOUTHERN ARIZONA NETWORK FOR DOWN SYNDROME

We are dedicated to being the primary source of information and support for individuals with Down syndrome in southern Arizona, working towards an improved quality of life and respect as valued members of society. We focus our efforts on connecting individuals and their families with needed services and resources, advocating locally and nationally, and raising public awareness.

We primarily work with families to help them achieve their goals. From prenatal diagnosis, to end of life care, we are there to help.

SANDS has several programs in place to assist our families. We provide new and expectant parent packets to help get them connected to services right away since early intervention is key to childhood development. We are connected with Down syndrome organizations on a national level to advocate for our community, as well as allow families to participate in the process as well.

Our biggest program is our Granting Opportunities for Learning & Development (G.O.L.D.) program. This program provides funding for individuals with Down syndrome to provide resources that their insurance does not cover, and is too costly out of pocket. We help pay for assistive communication devices for those who are non-verbal. We help pay for therapies and their equipment, educational materials and programming, specialty eyeglasses, specialty car seats, medical equipment, and more. Most of these items are very costly, but can provide many benefits to these individuals to help them stay on track as much as possible.

We also host an annual Buddy Walk, it is our biggest fundraiser, but it is also a large resource fair for our families. This provides an opportunity for our families to connect with local services all in one place to help meet the needs of their child. It also provides adults with Down syndrome the ability to network with other community programs and possible employers.

We actively pursue grants and fundraising opportunities to keep our programs funded. We also partner with other disability organizations and attend community events when possible to connect our family with resources and meet new families. We send new parent packets to hospitals and have established relationships with the facilities so that they can call us when a family needs assistance. We also connect with DDD and DES to let them know what services we can provide their clients.

Due to COVID -19, our usual methods of measuring goals slightly shifted. Since we were not able to visit hospitals and new parents, those units of measure have paused. These goals will resume once hospitals begin to open up again.

However, we expanded our individual grant program to provide even more funding, and provided a year's worth of grants in just 3 months. We also added in a new grant program to provide financial assistance for families to work with a private tutor for their child. During COVID school shut downs, children with Down syndrome were left without any of their school supports. With online learning being next to impossible for so many of them, parents were struggling with ways to help their child. With this program, parents could choose in-person or online tutoring, and have their child work on their individual educational goals.

Over all, we saw a 300% increase in financial assistance that we provided to our families.